That’s the key finding that emerges from the 2.6 million-word official investigation into Britain’s involvement in the Iraq War, informally known as the Chilcot Report. In the wake of 9/11, the British prime minister and his colleagues fancied that by supporting the George W. Bush administration in its determination to overthrow Saddam Hussein they could exercise a positive influence over US policy more generally. Instead, they allowed their country to be dragged into an unnecessary, poorly planned, ultimately unsuccessful, and arguably illegal war. In the end, the United Kingdom and its people gained nothing and paid dearly.

The report provides copious evidence to support that negative judgment. Along the way, the report demolishes what remains of Blair’s reputation and the entire Anglo-American case for taking down Saddam. By extension, it also offers this cautionary note: Any ally expecting that signing on as a junior partner in some American military adventure will translate into leverage in Washington should think again. Blair sought to steer Bush; in the end, he got used.

The Chilcot Report confirms that Bush “decided at the end of 2001 to pursue a policy of regime change in Iraq.” Senior British intelligence officials had by then already concluded “that Iraq had played no role in the 9/11 attacks on the US.” They had found “no evidence of links between Iraq and Al Qaeda,” correctly noting that Saddam and Osama bin Laden were “ideologically poles apart.” Nor had they uncovered any “credible evidence of covert transfers of WMD related technology and expertise to terrorist groups.” Indeed, they found no credible evidence to support Washington’s claims that Iraq retained a viable program for developing weapons of mass destruction.

None of this dissuaded Blair from throwing his government’s support behind the United States. He nursed the hope that he might persuade Washington to act only after having gained UN Security Council concurrence. He also hoped that Bush might agree to promoting a new peace initiative between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. But these were nonstarters. Bush and his inner circle disdained the UN. And they saw the peace process as a waste of time. Their aims were far more ambitious. Indeed, the underlying US rationale for toppling Saddam, according to the Chilcot Report, was “to clear up other problems in the region.” London’s role was to endow the endeavor with a multilateral gloss.

In fact, British intelligence analysts were telling Blair that invading Iraq was more likely to exacerbate problems than to clear them up. Al Qaeda, not Saddam, represented “by far the greatest terrorist threat to Western interests,” with that threat likely to be “heightened by military action against Iraq.” With considerable prescience, British intelligence professionals warned that “the broader threat from Islamist terrorists will also increase in the event of war, reflecting intensified anti-US/anti-Western sentiment in the Muslim world, including among Muslim communities in the West.”

Blair discounted such concerns. Like Bush, he chose to believe what he found it convenient to believe.

The prime minister even went so far as to endorse the president’s insistence that, if war occurred, the responsibility was Saddam’s alone. By submitting to comprehensive weapons inspections, so the argument went, the Iraqi dictator could save his own skin. The choice was entirely his. Yet Blair knew that this was a charade, his intelligence chief telling him in July 2002 that the Bush administration “intended to set the threshold on weapons inspections so high that Iraq would not be able to hold up US policy.” As far as Washington was concerned, war had become an imperative — “the question was only how and when.”

That same month, in a personal note, Blair assured Bush “I will be with you, whatever. But this is the moment to assess bluntly the difficulties. The planning on this and the strategy are the toughest yet. This is not Kosovo. This is not Afghanistan. It is not even the Gulf War.” Here the prime minister was way out in front of his own government, the Chilcot Report scathingly observing that Blair’s commitment reflected his “own views,” which “had not been discussed or agreed with his colleagues.”

Blair was certainly right about the difficulties that awaited. Given the stakes, therefore, one might have expected planning for the ensuing campaign to reflect the highest standards of military professionalism. In fact, as the Chilcot Report shows, British war planners made errors nearly identical to those of their American counterparts. Even with officials in London anticipating the occupation of Iraq, rather than taking down the regime, to be “strategically decisive,” the challenges of occupation caught British commanders by surprise. British soldiers expected to remain in Iraq for only a handful of months. Years would pass before they were able to return home.

One imagines that, for British citizens, the Chilcot Report will make for bitter reading. But they can at least console themselves with this: On their side of the Atlantic, there has finally been an accounting. On our side, there’s been none — nor is there likely to be anytime soon.

Andrew J. Bacevich is the author, most recently, of “America’s War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History.’’

We have to keep that in mind. We really did clean up the Middle East. Executed precisely and efficiently. Outstanding is not really strong enough. It was an investment in the future and the gratitude from all the beneficiaries, shocked and awed as they were, will come back to us ten fold.

Ted Nugent Calls For Native Americans to ‘Go Back Where They Came From’

STURGIS, S.D. – After a group of Native Americans protested outside a concert by Ted Nugent, the late-1970s rocker verbally lashed out, calling them “stinkyass unclean dipshIt protestors” and calling for Native Americans to be “rounded up and shipped back to wherever they came from!”

Nugent’s differences with Native Americans stem from their offence at his history of racially-charged statements. After one tribe cancelled his scheduled appearance at a casino in Worley, Idaho, he railed, “I take it as a badge of honor that such unclean vermin are upset by me and my positive energy. By all indicators, I don’t think they actually qualify as people.”

According to Nugent, the latest protest over his appearance at the Full Throttle Saloon in Sturgis, South Dakota, however, stepped over the line. Writing on his Facebook page, Nugent said, “WE ARE ON OUR JET NOW HEADING FOR TOLEDO RIBFEST JAM AFTER AN INSANE INCREDIBLE OUT OF BODY ULTRAROCKOUT at the Full Throttle Saloon in Sturgis SD! Simply astonishing gig! 4 stinkyass unclean dipshit protestors that admitted they hate me AND ALL WHITE PEOPLE THAT STOLE THEIR LAND BULLSHIT!!

“They need to just shut up and admit WE WERE HERE FIRST! Nobody asked them to come to America! They got a problem with a successful, happy, white American, they should just go back where they came from!” he added. “Hell, it’s past time these pussies were ROUNDED UP AND SHIPPED BACK TO WHEREVER THEY CAME FROM! I’ll even donate the shipping crates!”

When a reporter attempted to explain to Nugent- creator of such late-1970’s hits as Wang Dang Sweet Poontang and Free-For-All that the Native American tribes were, in fact, in America more than 10,000 years before Europeans came and settled the continent, Nugent shoved an AK-47 in his face, saying, “Shut up, unclean vermin!”

Now what does the “Arab Spring” have to do with the tomato crop in West Texas or some engineer in South Jersey wondering how he is going to pay his kids tuition in September? It is none of our business, not in our control and not our problem. Why is that hard to understand?

If some minority group in the United State believes it is there concern, let them dig into their pockets, use their money and their children to go to anyplace they like and work on what they perceive to be their problem.

We have enough problems in our own homes, our own farms, our own businesses and our own local governments.

Our own gardens and fields near weeding and care. Our own cities and bridges and schools and water systems are more important to our lives than some big ass aircraft carrier fucking with people that have never done anything for you and me.

What has Israel, Saudi Arabia or Egypt ever done to help you or me or any of us.

What has Israel, Saudi Arabia or Egypt ever done to help you or me or any of us.

Asked and answered many times.

As an "Israeli Firster" as you describe I would not be the one to defend or answer for Egypt or Arabia.

But Israel? Is the point of the spear against Islamic Terror, It punches well above it's pay grade as an ally of the USA and the American people. Of course NOTHING that I would say you'd respect, believe or agree with.

So I'd suggest you stop using your smart phone, make sure you don't use any Israeli medical innovations and do not travel overseas as most nations of the world now turn to the Israelis to help in security and safety.

Now you have a blessed day.

PS If you really love the arabs that call themselves "palestinians" why do not call for their leadership to be changed?

Deuce ☂Wed Jul 13, 08:28:00 AM EDTWe have to keep that in mind. We really did clean up the Middle East. Executed precisely and efficiently. Outstanding is not really strong enough. It was an investment in the future and the gratitude from all the beneficiaries, shocked and awed as they were, will come back to us ten fold.

The west's involvement in the arab occupied middle east has been going on since before the break up of the Ottoman Empire.

Arab Nationalism is a false, western construct. It took about 100 years or so but the results are in, the Arab peoples are Tribal, Clannish and Islamic, not nationalistic in a western pretax.

Borders? Trade agreements? All not germane to the Arab mindset.

The truth is easier to understand.

um·maˈo͝omə/nounnoun: ummahthe whole community of Muslims bound together by ties of religion.

Ummah (Arabic: أمة‎‎) is an Arabic word meaning "community". It is distinguished from Sha'b (Arabic: شعب‎‎) which means a nation with common ancestry or geography. Thus, it can be said to be a supra-national community with a common history.

It is a synonym for ummat al-Islamiyah (Arabic: الأمة الإسلامية‎‎) (the Islamic Community), and it is commonly used to mean the collective community of Islamic peoples. In the Quran the ummah typically refers to a single group that shares common religious beliefs, specifically those that are the objects of a divine plan of salvation.[1][2] In the context of Pan-Islamism and politics, the word Ummah can be used to mean the concept of a Commonwealth of the Believers (أمة المؤمنين ummat al-mu'minīn).

Hence the creation of the OIC, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

Now of course there are those within the Arab world holding on to borders and a national identity.

But it's growing smaller by the day.

In the so called "palestinian" world? the UNITY government with Hamas erased all real nationalistic goals and propelled the concept of the Ummah, in Egypt the Moslem Brotherhood does not want a strong, independent "egypt" but rather an Islamic state connected at the hip with other islamic groups that form the Umma.

The real mistake of the west was to think that the arabs/islamists wanted to form their so called nation/states in the image of the west's.

The islamic EMPIRE has been aggressive and warlike for 1400 years. To ignore it's real history? Is to ignore real reality.

From the massive african and european slave capture and trade to the Gates of Vienna the Arabs have shown they want a caliphate/empire, not western nations.

(that is to say, in coal Congressional Districts, the enviro lobby is unlikely to get a grip, despite their best efforts - it's like trying to outlaw wheat farming out this way, on the grounds it harms the mysterious and furtive Giant Palouse Earthworm)

You cite the exception rather than the rule. A local issue. Most in the country could give a shit whether they get their electricity from coal, nuclear, or natural gas.

On issues effecting the whole country, the lobbies write the legislation not Congress. All are reps do is write in their name. Do think people care about the waste and fraud in the health industry as long as their insurance is paying for it? Do you think many care when a line item is slipped in at the last minute switching hundreds of millions of dollars from one pot to another in the budget?

It's evident from your follow-up line to the question about moving to S.C.

Also, the line above about Israel is also pure bullshit. To you Israel, is a nice place to visit (though you don't do that either) but you sure wouldn't want to live there. You offer up this crap because you don't want to admit how sophomoric your puerile suggestion about my moving to Gaza is.

In short, you don't have the balls and come out and tell the truth. What a pussy.

I wouldn't want to live in Israel. Don't think I have ever said I would. Don't see how I would fit in very well. Doesn't mean I don't have great respect for what they have accomplished.

I wouldn't want to live in France, or Spain, or England either....I like it well right here....

As far as visiting anywhere, I haven't in years, except for a trip or two to my wife's place in Ohio, by car, of necessity.

Cash poor, and getting older.

Honestly Quirk, you know my suggestions that you move to Gaza is a goat getting tactic, which seems to have worked....I don't want them throwing you off a tall building, as I always do, in the end, despite all, have your best interests at heart, sucker that I am...

It was originally touched off by your sophomoric and puerile criticisms of Israel for defending itself 'effectively' from savages who have pledged in writing and publically to push Israel into the sea (See: Hamas Charter)

At this time Hezbollah is bragging about having around 100,000 missiles in the old Lebanon, the southern portion of which was supposed to have been 'demilitarized' per UN resolution, IIRC.

I worry about such developments, even though you don't.

Obviously I can't, nor can any of us, do a damn thing about anything, except cast one vote in elections, like everyone else.

I'd probably be better off spending time hunting Pokemons, though I don't have the I Phone to do it....

Glad to hear that the Israelis have carved out for themselves the luxury of recreational fly fishing. Just for fun, let’s Google “Gaza fishing” and see what we find:

Fishing Under Firefishingunderfire.blogspot.com/Israeli forces detain 2 Palestinian fishermen off Gaza coast ... naval forces opened fire at fishing boats off the coast of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip.

Gaza’s fishing industry under siege | The Electronic Intifadahttps://electronicintifada.net/content/gazas-fishing.../6788The Electronic IntifadaThirty-thousand people are dependant on Gaza's fishing industry, but since last June, the Israeli naval forces have harassed those Palestinian fishing boats that ...

972mag.com/idf-fires-on-gaza-fishermen-despite...fishing.../118468/+972 MagazineApr 9, 2016 - One Palestinian fisherman is reportedly wounded by Israeli navy fire, four are arrested and their boats seized. The size of the zone where Israel ...

A Night At Sea With The Fishermen Of Gaza - Huffington Postwww.huffingtonpost.com/.../gaza-fishermen-photos_us_572b9be...The Huffington PostMay 5, 2016 - Gaza's 4,000 fishermen, many of whom come from generations of mariners, hope that will bear out. More than half of them currently live below ...

I stand or fall on my argument. Not my feelings or what some political hack or corrupt media says and thinks. I have been around and know first hand about most of what I say and enough sense to question authority and doctrine.

Whatever I need or my country or the majority of my country needs can be prided for by us. That is our business. We blew up to three trillion on the Middle East and the actions of American politicians killed millions. If you approve , do so,. I don't

Honestly Quirk, you know my suggestions that you move to Gaza is a goat getting tactic,

It gets my goat that rather than responding to comments I make and you disagree with instead of putting up a reasonable argument supported by facts that can be easily verified or denied you instead emote, tell me how great Israel is, call me a racist or an anti-Semite, offer up childish suggestions like 'move to Gaza'.

You do the same thing when we talk about Trump's views or immigration, refugees, or the wall. The same applies to the recent rash of shootings by and against cops.

In short, I've no problem joking around on subjects like wolves or elk but on more serious issues I would prefer serious discussion free of diversions and non-sequiters, free of the name-calling, and free of emotional appeals rather than facts. I would prefer that rather than just saying I am lying you present proofs of that assertion.

But I can do it either way.

I disagree with Deuce, Ash, Mome, and Rufus often and sometimes vehemently; but I do have to admit that though I might disagree with them they at least present a legitimate argument based certain facts. In the end, I might still disagree with them at the end but at least I can respect their position.

I'll change my views on Moslems on that fine day, and it really would be a wonderful day, when Jewish synagogues and Christian churches and Hindu temples are freely built in Saudi Arabia and Iran, and not moment earlier.

Well, at least you've stated you case clearly without all the bubblegum and bullshit. Now, if you can get to the point where you don't reflexively call anyone who disagrees with you a Muslim lover, you might be making some progress.

I happen to disagree with you based on my experience and the statistics I've seen. I believe America is exceptional at least in the way it integrates immigrants from various cultures and believes. There is no comparison between the European experience and the American one.

Two, I worked in Dearborn a good part of my life and never saw any real trouble there, well except for when that nut job preacher from Florida came up to burns copies of the Koran. As I recall, they did get a little rowdy and were throwing shoes at him until the police stopped it. He was allowed to make his speech though.

Dearborn has the largest population of Muslims in the US. If you look at the statistics for the city you will see the crime there is no worse than any other midsize city. Your other example is Hamtramk. They are completely surrounded by Detroit yet their crime figures are significantly lower than the bigger city. They have different types of festivals there all summer. I'm sure there is some trouble as you'd expect when any large mass of people getting together but nothing I've seen in the news.

I've already pointed out the statistics on the low crime among Muslims in the US.

As for your sharia law concerns I think they are overblown. The US has a long history of allowing religions to arbitrate certain issues if they can. It save time and money for the courts. A google check would show you that both Christians and Jews are allowed to do the same.

However, any rulings that aren't agreed upon by the parties involved are not allowed. Likewise, any decisions that are reached that go against local or federal laws or the Constitution are struck down in our courts. There are a number of examples of this. I don't expect that to change.

As for the Muslims themselves, I don't really have an opinion. I don't have any as Muslim friends so its hard to judge; although, I'll admit I like chicken swarma. However, my opinion is that the vast majority of the Muslims here came for the same reasons every other immigrant group comes here for the opportunity to work and to get away from the bullshit in their own countries.

BRUSSELS — An executive with NBCUniversal said he had been denied entry into Russia and detained for several hours on Wednesday, raising the prospect that a growing spy and diplomatic confrontation could now be tipping into the world of business.

The executive, Jeff Shell, who oversees the motion picture unit, said he was traveling to Russia on business when he was detained briefly and ordered to leave the country. Mr. Shell said NBCUniversal had a movie operation in the country. He is also the chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the federal agency that oversees Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and other government broadcasters that are not well liked in the Kremlin.

Here are some of the things we do know, however. One is who the monitor is for the consent decree. The non-profit group contracted by the city is the Police Assessment Resource Center (PARC), a Los Angeles-based entity that is part of the Vera Institute of Justice. Both PARC and the Vera Institute have A-list connections on the radical left.

But we are justified in suspecting him and PARC of having the same agenda as Merrick Bobb – and the other connections with whom PARC and the Vera Institute are associated.

One of those, as you probably suspect, is George Soros. The Vera Institute has been among the top 150 recipients of grants from the Open Society Institute.

The former director of the Vera Institute, Christopher Stone, joined the board of the Open Society Institute’s Justice Initiative in 2004, and became the director of the Open Society Institute itself in 2011. So we’re not talking about incidental connections here.

(Not coincidentally, a Soros Justice Fellow – a woman granted a fellowship by the Institute Stone runs and the board he lately served on – was among those arrested in Arizona in March blocking the road at a Trump rally. Soros is funding every aspect of the radical assault on peace and the rule of law in America.)

Another radical connection is Bernardine Dohrn, who was an advisor to the Vera Institute’s National Advisory Board on Adolescent Development, Safety and Justice from 1998 to 2003.

"Why do the mistakes that were made 100 years ago condemn us to keep repeating them today?

Is it as our god-squad members offers, we broke it so now we have to fix it?

I say bull. In every adventure we have attempted in the ME we have managed to screw it up even more. The Pottery Barn rules don't apply to anyone who is incompetent to implement them. "===Does anyone really believe Quirk stopped drinking?

"While seeking to catch Pokemon while playing the popular augmented reality game, individuals should not be “operating a motor vehicle or bicycle,” cops advise. Additionally, “Do not trespass on private property when trying to ‘catch’ a Pokemon.”

Magnificent Ronald and the Founding Fathers of al Qaeda

“These gentlemen are the moral equivalents of America’s founding fathers.” — Ronald Reagan while introducing the Mujahideen leaders to media on the White house lawns (1985). During Reagan’s 8 years in power, the CIA secretly sent billions of dollars of military aid to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan in a US-supported jihad against the Soviet Union. We repeated the insanity with ISIS against Syria.